A fiber optic cable “roll out” and installation requires testing of the newly laid and spliced fibers to verify that they work properly and in accordance with desired performance characteristics. As a result, testing is required, for example, to ensure that the optic cable has been installed according to specification, including the actual fiber, connections, and splices between a distribution hub to a target location. Knowing the length of each fiber between its unterminated ends as well as the clarity of the optic cable fiber is often critical. In particular, when using connections and splices, it is necessary to test the entire cable in order to determine that all of the splices or connections were appropriately accomplished without unduly degrading fiber light transmission capability. The testing is usually performed by measuring the decibel (dB) loss within a particular span of each fiber between two unterminated ends.
Typically, a multi-fiber installation requires at least two technicians to validate and test each optic cable. A first technician must be located at the target location and a second technician must be at the hub location. The technician at the target location attaches a transmission source to a particular unterminated fiber end. The other technician would then probe the other end of the optic cable with a power meter at the hub location to determine which fiber is providing optical power, e.g., the specific fiber to which the light source is connected to. Through mutual communication, the two technicians would then label the fiber at each location with a common designation. This is a time consuming and random method for determining the fiber identities, as well as being expensive in manpower and equipment. Moreover, such a manual method using more than one technician is prone to mistakes through miscommunication or accidental mis-labeling.